They are good, and I'm oblivious.
Where to begin... well, I'm not really sure where the beginning is as I'm still in the process of sorting the pieces together.
So, let me tell you what I know.
Just over 4 weeks ago, my friend Femme, challenged me to a weight loss competition. We were both trying to lose about 6 or 7 pounds. It was a brilliant idea! But, we had to decide what the prize would be. I told my husband about our little wager and he suggested that the loser buy the winner a plane ticket to come visit. I had the same thought but wasn't sure if it was a bit much to expect Femme to buy my ticket when I kicked her ass. At some point Femme made a similar suggestion. I'm smiling now as I recall the email I sent to Femme about bringing my family along. I felt like I was inviting my whole family to come stay with her if I won AND she'd have to pay for my ticket. That's a lot to ask of someone because they lost 5 lbs and not 6. Anyway, the wager was great. We sent our food journals to each other everyday. I lost like 5 lbs in 2 weeks, then Femme found out she's pregnant, so the competition weined a bit (I gained 2 lbs back the next 2 weeks). Really, a lot of this is inconsequential, but I didn't want to leave you hanging.
In the meantime, Mark is fretting about my birthday present. Well, he doesn't really fret. He just makes comments like, I still need to buy your present. And, I'm trying to decide between 2 different things and I'm waiting for them to get back to me. He warns me not to read his email or check the Amex bill. Then he says, he finally bought it, but it probably won't make it in time for my birthday. No big deal. Then he tells me not to make plans for this Saturday because he has something planned for me, etc, etc.
This particular part of the story is not directly part of the Perfect Storm, but I will insert it as it has to do with my sneaky husband and my oblivousness. Over the weekend he says that we need to go to the mall so he can buy my present. I say sure, not really thinking that this is nothing like Mark. Also forgetting that he already has it according to him. I figure he had something in mind and he would leave me for a few minutes while he went to go buy it. He didn't do that; we just walked around. He takes me to Nordstrom to look at purses, but I don't see one that I like. As we are leaving Nordstrom we pass by a jewelry store where he bought a watch a few months ago. The watch had to be sent back and Mark's been talking to the store manager and he want to go introduce himself. So, that's what he did. I decide to put Mark in an uncomfortable position and tell the store manager that my birthday is coming up. Of course, the manager latches onto that, but rather than make a joke about it and leave Mark decides to turn the table on me.. or so I thought. He knows how much I hate to waste sales people's time. I HATE IT! I get hot and start to sweat and get anxious. Somehow we end up looking at watches. I don't have a nice watch; the last not-so-nice watch I had broke when I was in the hospital having Kessler. Long story short, he shows us a bunch of nice watches.. I squirm and sweat and try to have small conversations with Mark when the sales guy is not in earshot. Mark finally says, "do you think this wasn't my plan the whole time?". Yeah.. let's go to Nordstrom... let's go to look at purses, which happens to be on the 2nd floor.. which happens to be where the jewelry store is.
He's a puppeteer.
Moving right along, he decides that he's going to tell me about the rest of my present on my birtday. So, this morning I call him at work and he has me check my email. There's an email from him with an airline itinerary. First I think, where are we going?? Then I see, it's for Femme and her husband to come here. Then I say, "Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap!! Do they know? Oh no, she's pregnant, crap, does she know? CRAP!!" Apparently I think my husband is an idiot and came up with this whole idea on his drive to work this morning and assumed that Femme and husband would just be game. Au contraire. It turns out that Femme and Mark have been in cahoots for several weeks. Hence the very thoughtful suggestion of a weightloss competition. Since I couldn't prepare myself for the visit, she figured she'd give me alternate motivation to look my best.
They are good. I am oblivious. The Perfect Storm.
Thank you both so much! I can't help but smile at all of this! I can't wait to see you-Femme and husband!!!
3 comments:
WOOHOOO!!! Awesome gift...and what a setup! don't you love the surprise gifts and the uber-thoughtful friends? i want to see lots of pics from the weekend!
Femme will be helping me celebrate MY bday on friday night...i wont make her stay out partying too much before her flight. that way she'll have energy to party with you too :)
Partying? What's that? All I ever do in the evenings these days is crack the books. It's not like I can crack open a bottle of champagn, or anything!
I CAN'T WAIT for our visit and to meet the babies in person! They are so cute and little Makena is such a riot! I'm looking forward to hanging out with "The Puppeteer" as well!
I was delighted, in my insomnia laden state, to see all these great posts on your blog. "How did she find the time to do all this?" I asked myself. Then I remembered that we haven't had one of our marathon phone conversations in a few days!
The reality is that I should not have "found the time" to create all of these posts, especially the one with all the videos. But, I reached the point of no return and had no choice. Let me explain.
My videos haven't been publishing properly even though they show up just fine in preview mode. So, I figured I needed to convert the files from .avi to something else. Even though the original videos I posted were .avi and they worked fine. So, I figure out how to make the conversion and edit all the videos. Then create the post which requires a lot of shifting things because the videos never end up where I intended. A couple of hours later.. it's perfect. I hit publish... no videos!!! I have already invested so much time creating the post--I just couldn't let it end like that.
So, I search blogspot's help section to find that many others have had the same problem but it took me 45 minutes to find someone's suggestion for fixing it. When I read it I was sooooo mad at myself. Someone wrote that some of their videos worked and some didn't. So, they compared the code and changed the non-working video code to look like the working code. What a novel idea!!!! Jeez. So, I set out to do that which took a bit of time because the code gets squished together and it's difficult to read, blah, blah. But, finally I was done and it worked.
It's a relief because I have tons of video piling up so I'll get more out there for your viewing pleasure.. since now you have tons of free time this weekend. :(
American Airline sucks for canceling your flight!! Though, I'm 99.9% disappointed.. devasted even, there's .1% that feels a little relief. I was feeling guilty that you were traveling on my account.. with making lungs and studying for tests, your plate is already full.
Soon enough though!!
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